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The Denham Estate
Denham, Barrow
Bury St
Edmunds
Suffolk, IP29 5EQ
Tel: 01284 810231-2
Fax: 01284 810094
e-mail:
venison@denhamestate.co.uk | |
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| Last
updated 10th August 2007 |
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Editorial
Customers
and Friends
On
the Estate
In
the News
Editorial
The demand for traditional and rare breed meat has been increasing in leaps and bounds and this indicates not only a greater perception among those interested in good farming practices and high quality flavoursome foods but also realisation that meat from traditional breeds has been raised with an emphasis on the highest standards of good husbandry and animal welfare.
There is much to commend the new initiative on environmental farming as opposed to intensive farming for maximum production. However it would be dangerous with the ever-increasing serious man-made and natural disasters to neglect the necessity for our country to be as self sufficient in food production as possible. And surely it is not beyond the powers of farmers and politicians to establish a balance embracing both self-sufficiency together with the high standards of good farming practice.
In the catastrophic consequences of ignoring our obligations to protect the environment, we at the Denham Estate have commenced using biofuels in our vehicles wherever possible and intend using our very best endeavours to convert more and more to non-fossil fuels.
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Customers
and Friends
We are very pleased to read that the Empress of India is a nominee in the Best British category in this years Time Out eating and drinking awards(I also note that they are listed as cooking the 6th best chips in all of London!).
If you are interested in the trials and tribulations of starting a new restaurant, John Hudgell, the owner of Cambridge's latest restaurant, Alimentum has been keeping a blog over the last few months so you can see what is involved - alot of careful thought, preparation, tact and diplomacy. But the results really do seem to be worth it.
For the third year running, Abbot Ale has teamed up with the Daily Telegraph and Classic FM to find your
Perfect Pubs. The Star at Lidgate not only won the Anglia Region “Perfect Food Pub 2007” also the National “Perfect Pub Host.”
“Like every individual host or hostess, no two pubs are the same. Every host creates their own, distinctive ambience that defines the personality of their pub. The Perfect Pub Host could excel in all manner of ways. It could be their flamboyant style that brings in the crowds or their tireless commitment at the heart of the community. Judge Brian Blessed picked Teresa Axon, licensee at the Star, Lidgate in Suffolk as his winner, simply saying that the atmosphere in her pub was absolutely sensational.
National Winner
The Star, Lidgate, Suffolk”
We are really pleased to see that Anthony Demetre, who was previously at the Michelin starred Putney Bridge restaurant, and who has been enjoying incredible success with his restaurant
Arbutus has now opened a sister resturant Wild Honey to very good reviews.
Visitors to the Estate in the past few months
Galvin
Butlers Wharf Chop House
Peter Hayward from In House Catering
The Humane Slaughter Association
Baxter Storey
Alimentum
Jesus College
The City of London Club
Elk in the Wood
Sheraton Park Lane Hotel
The Gatekeeper Trust
The Spice Club
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On the
Estate
The Denham Estate was
one of the first establishments in the country
to join the Countryside Stewardship Scheme
when it started over ten years ago. We
have now renewed our membership and a raft of
new projects are now in progress.
To
find out more details have a look at our
Farming Policy page.
There is also information regarding the
renovation of Denham Castle.
Deer
Following a very wet spell over the last few weeks we have finally been able to make hay from our meadows and harvest the barley needed as supplementary feed over the winter for our animals.
However a good side effect of the weather has been that there has been an abundance of grass for feeding now and the fawns are coming along extremely well.
Arable
Spring 2007 will be remembered as one of the driest on record. The last wet day was the 25th of March with no rain then for almost 7 weeks. The early summer will however be remembered as one of the wettest with over 150mm of rain recorded in the last half of May and the first half of June, and as for July.......!
Our sugar beet was drilled on the 27th March into really good conditions. Usually it would be growing into little green rows of plants within 10 days but this years drought left us with brown fields until late May. Now the fields are almost green over and all the stress of waiting for it to grow is long forgotten.
Our combinable crops, wheat, barley, oilseed rape and beans, also suffered due to the lack of rain refusing to grow for a good three weeks and reducing our potential harvest with every passing day. But we had no idea what Mother Nature had in store for us, the rain and sunshine started and we saw the crops grow at an alarming rate. What looked like being a mediocre harvest now looks to be on track to produce very respectable yields and as world grain prices return to levels not seen for a good few years the optimism seems to be back in British farming.
Denham Estate is a very green and pleasant place to be at the moment our freshly sown spring grass is now ready to be grazed by this years lambs. The oilseed rape has lost its bright yellow flowers and the plants are now heavily laden with pods. The barley is turn to a beautiful golden colour and the wheat has received its last dose of fungicide to ensure healthy grains and a successful harvest.
The combine has been revved up and is munching its way through another harvest. With a bit of luck now we will have a nice hot dry summer(!) and those of us on the arable team will be finished harvest by the end of August – we’re all hoping for the bank holiday weekend off! Before we know it, it will be time to sow next year’s crops and then lift the late growing sugar beet. Funny how just when you think you’re finished something else comes along to keep you busy.
Rare Breeds
We have had a very successful lambing season in April and May with several hundred lambs being born and they are now thriving on the plentiful grass brought on by the rains over the last week.
The local Red Poll and the White Park cattle are now reaching maturity and are looking magnificent grazing in the orchards and conservation areas in the sun.
The cattle are extremely efficient grazers and prove the superiority of native traditional breeds in converting meadow grass
While talking about the White Park cattle, as noted in the "Visitors to the Estate" section, we had a visit from The Gatekeeper Trust. They were specifically interested in looking at the castle but were suprised and very pleased to see the White Park cattle as they are representatives of the oldest breed of cattle in this country. They thought it was especially relevent as they told us that in Bury St Edmunds in medieval times, possibly even earlier and up to the 18th century, the Abbey required that a white bull, probably one of the ancient breed, be kept on field near the Abbey to be led around town as part of a fertility rite. Women would accompany the bull around the centre of town and then go to pray at the shrine of St Edmunds in the hope of conceiving children.
It is rather pleasing to know that we have brought the old white cattle breed back to the Bury St Edmunds area
The Enviroment
We have been one of 18 farms in East England taking part in a Defra LINK project
, which was started in 2006 and will run over 4 years. It is to see how managing uncropped land can “enhance biodiversity benefits of the farmland landscape”.
The project has monitored birds in a whole 100ha block of land included in the project and plants and selected invertebrates (bees, butterflies and hoverflies) in three fields within the block.
We have received the report of the summer 2006 results and were really pleased to see the number of different species and hope that the 2007 figures will show increasingly flourishing populations.
We have commenced using biofuels now on the Estate and our intention in due course is to source and refine the fuels from crops grown on the Estate and this is currently our objective.
We have also made the change from standard plastic carrier bags for customer deliveries to photo-degradable carrier bags.
These are all small steps but even small steps get you somewhere in the end.
We are further developing our commitment to farming in an environmentally sensitive manner by becoming members of
Leaf. By completing the LEAF audit and becoming a LEAF registered farm we hope to identify areas where we can improve our farming practices for the benefit of wildlife on the farm.
In
accordance with our extended Countryside
Stewardship Scheme membership, the 30km+ of
field margins have now been established and
their effect can already be measured by the
increase of song birds and wild life.
As we are heading toward the next stages of the enviromental scheme, amonst the general maintainance and improvements we have also planted a further 300m of hedgerows this year and are inceasing the area of field margins.
Last year we showed this picture of some concrete standings that were being broken up to plant up for grazing.
Here is what it looked like last winter. No leaves on the trees but even so a great improvement we think.
Cherry Trees School, of
Risby in Suffolk is acclaimed as one of the
foremost and most progressive small, independent
primary schools in East Anglia with an intense
environmental and ecological programme.
We have been most impressed with the
list of projects the children will be involved
with this academic year with everything from the
Reception year "Meeting the Animals" through
mapping, natural history, the following of both
animals and crops through the farming year and
many, many more topics. Every year in the school
is involved and we find the interaction between
the children and the Estate very exciting.
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In the
News
The Farmers Guardian
published a double page spread on the Denham
Estate a little while ago. The journalist, Tia Rund, created an
excellent potted history of the Estate and how
it is run, and the article was accompanied by
some wonderful photographs of animals and staff
taken by Ian Hulland.
If you would like
to read the article, click here.
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